Proposed Cuts called Devastating amid Freezes and Layoffs. 32 districts fear deficits, 51 raid contingency funds

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) – After gathering input from the state’s public school district superintendents, Education Commissioner Jon E. Draud says that a proposed four percent reduction in funds would have devastating short- and long-term effects on Kentucky’s P-12 education system.

“As part of the request from the State Budget Director’s Office to develop a plan and analysis of the effects of a funding cut, I asked the state’s superintendents to share the potential repercussions for their districts,” Draud said. “The responses that I received indicate that a cut of this magnitude would severely limit every district’s ability to provide high-quality learning experiences for students.”

A four percent reduction to the state’s P-12 education budget would amount to approximately $132 million. If the reduction includes the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky (SEEK) funding formula, school district superintendents indicated that they would have to make difficult choices.

• Even though it is very difficult to reduce staff after the school year has begun, 36 districts indicated that they would reduce staffing levels for the current school year. This would include hiring freezes and layoffs of classified staff in some cases.
• 142 districts indicated that they expect to reduce staff for the 2009-10 school year, because many of them will be entering that school year with very low contingencies and will be forced to reduce staffing and programs to balance their budgets for the year.
• 33 districts indicated that they would be forced to reduce Flexible Focus programs such as extended school services, safe schools, professional development and other related programs.
• These reductions are in addition to reductions already in place in the enacted budget.
• 41 districts indicated that they will curtail or eliminate maintenance expenditures for the remainder of the fiscal year. Failure to maintain our school buildings will shorten the expected life of those facilities and result in greater costs in the future.
• 28 districts indicated that they would defer major equipment items, including school buses, for the remainder of the year. Districts are encouraged to implement a replacement schedule for buses to ensure that children are safely transported to and from schools. The decision to defer these purchases will result in greater costs in the future as well.
• 23 districts indicated that they would reduce technology and equipment purchases, and some indicated that they would be unable to match their offers of assistance under the Kentucky Education Technology System (KETS) program.
• 5 districts indicated that they would have to consider reducing their full-day kindergarten programs to half-day programs. Currently, state funding only covers half-day kindergarten, but a majority of districts provide full-day services with monies from their general funds.
• 3 districts indicated that they would suspend their facility plans and halt construction on new schools.

Other state-funded programs would experience extreme limitations under a four percent reduction, including:

• career and technical education
• assistance to low-performing schools
• leadership and instructional support
• educator quality and diversity
• preschool
• safe schools
• textbooks
• gifted and talented
• technology

One challenge facing school districts is that approximately 80 percent of their budgets are committed to personnel and, due to contract restrictions, they have little or no ability to alter contracts at this point in the school year. As a result, a mid-year reduction of four percent is the equivalent of a 20 percent reduction of the portion of their budgets that they can alter nearly halfway through the fiscal year. The majority of districts have reported that their contingency and general fund balances will be reduced significantly as a result of the proposed reduction.

“One very troubling trend is evident in the responses of 51 districts that indicate they will be below the two percent threshold established by state law as a minimum contingency balance,” said Draud. “An additional 32 districts indicated a concern that the proposed four percent reduction may cause them to end the year in deficit. Districts in this situation will struggle to provide the services that their students need to succeed and progress toward proficiency. This also will dramatically increase the number of districts for which the Kentucky Department of Education is required by law to provide management assistance, as the department's ability to offer technical assistance also will be reduced.”

The operations budget for the Department of Education was reduced by approximately $1.3 million in July of this year. Staff has reduced travel, delayed filling vacant positions and deferred operating expenditures to meet that reduction. An additional four percent reduction would require further cuts totaling $984,500. Since 2001, the Kentucky Department of Education has lost 219 positions, a 28 percent reduction in the agency’s workforce.

Draud said that perceptions about public education and funding have been misinformed over the past few years. “There has been a perception that public education has been ‘spared’ the budget reductions faced by other state agencies over the years. Over a number of years, funds appropriated to the Department of Education have lapsed to the credit of the state General Fund, even when there have been program needs that have gone unmet as a result.

“I encourage budget officials to consider the full impact on the state’s public school system as they work to meet the demands of this tight budget,” said Draud. “Kentucky has shown great progress since the 1990s, and strong, steady funding is the key to maintaining that progress and getting all schools to proficiency.”

SOURCE: KDE press release